Avalon Illumination Review

Nice ship, shame about the rest

Review for Europe River Cruise on Avalon Illumination
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Boaterlady
6-10 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Jul 2015
Cabin: Panorama Suite with French Balcony

We booked this about 18 months ago to celebrate a milestone birthday. We had been told at that time that Avalon did a drinks package like most of the other lines, but when they eventually replied to my many calls and emails, they said they were no longer doing this. This was disappointing, as they only include wines, beer and soft drinks with dinner.

24 hours before we were due to leave we had a call to say that due to low water levels in the Danube delta, we would have to spend two nights in Bucharest instead of one and meet the ship somewhere else. They offered what we thought at the time was a reasonable amount of compensation, and in any case we were staying (we thought) at the Athenée Palace Hilton so how bad could it be? When we arrived at Bucharest my husband's luggage was missing. The airline said it would come on the next flight and they would deliver it. Then Avalon took us to the Ramada Plaza, half an hour out of the city in an area with no shops or restaurants. It was a dump. There was no power when we got there and it took over two hours to fix the problem. During this time the power was going on and off and an elderly lady in our group got stuck between floors in the lift. We refused to use the lift to our 7th floor room until they could assure us that the power was fixed. No refreshment was offered apart from a small bottle of water and some of our group had been travelling for over 24 hours. When we complained they eventually produced some tiny sandwiches and to glasses of tap water (which we had been warned not to drink) - but only for us. I felt sorry for the poor lady from the lift, who was very traumatised. Their attitude to this was poor. They tried to fob us off with a tale of the power outage being citywide and due to the high temperatures, but the people in the Pullman two minutes away said they hadn't had a problem.

Our no smoking room stank of smoke. They did change the room but in the second one the safe didn't work and the lights blew with an almighty bang and the bedside light bulbs were not replaced. Breakfast was horrible and we had to be bussed for dinner to the Pullman down the road where the rest of our group were staying ( a MUCH nicer option, but even there the food was only average.) When my husband's luggage arrived early on the second day they refused to bring it up to the room. this was not by any means the 5* luxury we had paid for.

Cabin Review

Panorama Suite with French Balcony

Illumination is a nice enough ship if you like black and chrome. The cabins are bigger than average and had a small but not comfortable sofa and chair. The bed was quite comfortable as it had a soft mattress topper and the pillows were good. Bathrooms are smallish but the shower is an OK size. Our bathroom floor was never cleaned all the time we were on the ship and the toilet was not cleaned under the rim. Used glasses were often left in the cabin.

Port Reviews

Budapest

A stunning city. It would have been better if we had been a little nearer the chain bridge, but the market was interesting.

Vienna

Another beautiful city, but very expensive. The Zentralfriedhof cemetery where the great composers Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Strauss are buried is beautiful and worth venturing onto the U-bahn and tram system for.

Regensburg

A pretty place. the included sausages were nice but a little undercooked for our taste. I'm glad we didn't pay 9 Euros for them!

Nuremberg

Have been before so we have seen the Nazi rally grounds and the old town. Didn't think it was worth traipsing round in the heat to see it again.

Cologne

Cologne is a dump and could be anywhere. the cathedral is the only bit worth seeing.

Amsterdam

A really interesting city, once we left the boring walking tour and did our own thing!

Bucharest

Bucharest is a dirty, unloved city with a graffiti problem.

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